Gary Thomas, Ed.D. County Superintendent

Superintendent's Message

Early Assessment Program Aims To Make Students College-Ready

One of the ways public education can clear the way for more of our graduating high school students to attend college is to show them that they already possess the skills they will need to be on the path toward a post-secondary education.

That's one of the efforts taking place with the Inland Area Early Assessment Program Collaborative, which is a collective effort among California State University, San Bernardino, the University of California, Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona, our community colleges and the San Bernardino and Riverside counties offices of education.

The goal is to ensure that our high school graduates on a college path are truly ready to succeed in college. The Early Assessment Program, or EAP, allows 11th-graders to take an assessment as part of their California Standards Test in the spring. The assessment is designed to give high school students an early indication of college readiness in English language arts and math, and to avoid incoming college students' need for remediation.

A student who is deemed college-ready by the Early Assessment Program will be exempt from taking CSU placement tests and can enroll directly into college level courses upon admission.

Additionally, County Schools is working with Cal State and local school districts to aid students who do not pass EAP in their junior year by providing professional development for teachers and counselors in order to provide the students with the necessary coursework to ensure college readiness.

According to data from the California Postsecondary Education Commission, in the most recent data from 2009, only 29 percent of San Bernardino County students enter either a Cal State, UC or community college following graduation. That's nearly 12 percent less than the state average.

That contrasts with the growth seen in the number of county students both taking and passing the Early Assessment during the past three years. More than 26,000 juniors took the assessment in English in the spring. That's more than 78 percent of the 33,307 enrolled countywide in 11th grade, according to data from the California Department of Education.

Of the students who took the English portion of the test, 4,188 or 16 percent were deemed college ready. While that number has improved in each of the past three reporting years, it trails the state average of 22 percent.

For the mathematics portion of the test, 11,767 county students took the assessment in 2011. That's only 35 percent of the junior class. That compares with 39 percent statewide. Nearly 54 percent of the county students who took the test - or 6,321 - qualified as either college ready or conditional ready in math.

Increasing the college-going rates in our county is a top priority for public education. Without a more highly skilled and college-ready workforce, our region will not be able to compete for jobs in the global economy. It is critical for the economic viability of our county, region and state, that we are able to increase college-going rates. My hope is that through collaborative efforts that reach across K-12 and higher education like the Inland Area Early Assessment Program Collaborative, we can make that a reality.